


Scrap Chapters

by winkette



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Underfell (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underswap (Undertale)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-14
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2019-02-14 13:38:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13008984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winkette/pseuds/winkette
Summary: A collection of chapters that were cut from other stories or were part of stories that were never completed.Feel free to read them and use them for inspiration or ignore them, either works





	1. Scrap 1 Ch1

**Author's Note:**

> Sorting through my stories folders led me to find two chapters that I can't remember how they were supposed to work. So they both end up here instead. Maybe they'll influence other stories later, or maybe they'll disappear forever.

The murderous little Froggit things you could handle. The weird flower stuck to your arm and hiding under your hair you could handle. The puzzles, the monsters, the spider bake sale even.

This underground house with the weirdly over-protective goat mother, you could not handle. She was currently holding your hand, perhaps grasping it too hard, and pulling you into the kitchen. She had refused to take ‘no’ for an answer.

The house was small but nice. A set of stairs led down across from the entrance door and you continued to be pulled to the left. This room was a relaxing living area, with a too-large chair, a bookshelf, and a small dining table.

“Sit, sit!” Toriel insisted, pushing you to the table. She was happy, you guess, but perhaps a little jittery too? You pulled out a chair and sat down at the table, looking back up at the larger Goat Woman as her hands fluttered over your collar, straightening it.

“Good!” She beamed. “Wait here, I’ve got something delicious for you!” She turned and ran through the archway to the left of the fireplace.

“You’ll have to wait here for a chance to run.” Flowey whispered in your ear. You nod, letting him know you heard him.

“Is she the queen?” You ask. Flowey shifts under your hair and pokes his yellow head from his hiding place. He takes a worried glance at the doorway before turning to give you a nod.

 “She’s been hiding in the ruins trying to, uh, collect children?” His eyebrows furrow together a moment and he takes a quick glance around the room. “Doesn’t look like this place is really fit for children. Maybe one, but probably not more.”

 “Does that really matter right now?” You ask, keeping an eye on the doorway. You could hear some utensils hiding a china plate, or something akin to that, but no sign of Toriel heading to the room just yet. “Where do we go once we have the chance?”

 Flowey nods, curling a bit more under your hair. “The stairs, it leads to the rest of the underground. It’s not safe there either but we have to run through it to get to the barrier. It’s the only way out.”

You nod in understanding just as you hear footsteps heading to you and Flowey quickly hid once more.

 “You must be hungry from your fall!” The large goat monster practically skipped back into the room, her yellow eyes dancing in joy. “Luckily I’ve made some fresh pie just for guests.” She placed the pie in front of you, laying a fork right next to the plate.

 “Thank you.” You say with a smile. She looks so happy right now, just standing next to you. Flowey had told you this woman, the Queen, was dangerous. She could kill you before you ever made it to the Underground or you could be stuck here with her forever. Neither of those choices sounded very pleasing to you and you had chosen to ‘play nice’ for now, while she was in a good mood.

 You return your gaze to the pie, thankful that it looked like something sweet. Flowey had chatted your ear off the whole walk through the Ruins, telling you about Monster history and little tid-bits about the monsters you may encounter along the way. For Toriel, he said she loved to make snail pie and the two of you shared a disgusted face.

 Taking the fork, you take the smallest piece off the tip of the triangle slice and take a happy bite. The taste of cinnamon and butterscotch greeted your senses. You hummed happily, making sure to smile back up to the goat monster. Her face lit up more and she clapped her hands in front of her.

 “I’m so glad you like it. I had just ran out of snails this morning and felt so worried that I wouldn’t have anything to serve guests.” She sighed. “Luckily I had enough ingredients to make something else.”

 “Lucky.” You agreed, taking another bite. Toriel hummed a tune you didn’t know and walked back to what you figured was the kitchen. You poked a bite of the pie and held it next to your ear for Flowey to take a bite. There was a cute “Nom” in your ear that made you giggle as you took another bite yourself. After a moment, Toriel returned with a tray of tea and cookies.

 Without asking, she poured you a cup of tea and gently pushed it close to your hand that rested on the table. You smile at her, feigning innocence and take a tentative sip from the cup. You didn’t recognize the flavor of the tea but it wasn’t too bitter to swallow. Toriel poured herself a glass and sat in the chair next to you.

 She sat there, seeming to enjoy your company and fully content just to sit there and feed you pie and tea. You finish your plate and are left sipping your tea with Toriel. You glance at her, waiting for her to talk but she just seems to be fine sitting there, her eyes closed and her body relaxed. You could sense that she was paying attention to you by the slight tilt of her head in your direction and the way her ears seemed to twitch when you moved a little.

 “Thank you for the pie,” You finally say. “It was delicious.” You set your now empty tea cup onto the table gently and push the plate away.

 “I’m glad you liked it.” She repeated. She was finally looking at you now, something dancing behind her eyes.

 You both sat in silence a moment. The house was quiet but somewhere in the ruins a Froggit was croaking in anger. You decided you hated this silence. She definitely was waiting for you to say something, perhaps preparing for a specific question.

 You had a guess what the question was that she was waiting for, but you slide back into your happy face.

 “It seems nice to live here, even if it is under a mountain. Are you doing okay here?”

Surprise glances across her face but she smiles anyway. “It’s fine once you’re used to it. I have someone that visits every now and then who likes to joke and keep me company but usually it’s just me and the froggits here.”

You nod in understanding, silently worried about her ‘friend’ that visits and praying today they would stay home.

“Did you create all the puzzles?”

“No.” She leans onto the table, enjoying this topic. “A lot of them were here before my arrival but I had to improve upon them. It helps to keep me busy as I wait for guests to visit.”

“By guests…” You edge into the question. “Do you mean children? Who fall?”

Her eyes seem to darken and dance at the same time, her smile widens and she doesn’t back away from the question.

“Yes. Someone has to be here to take care of them. Such tiny little things, can’t handle anything themselves.” She turns to face you with her whole body now, elbows still on the table and face resting in her hand. “But you…” You swallow. “You’re a bit older than the usual crowd. What brings an adult human to this mountain?”

You let out a pathetic chuckle, already knowing how stupid your answer is.

“I actually only moved to the area about a month ago. I used to hike a lot with my dad at home and wanted to go for a walk. I didn’t know there was anything, uh, special about this mountain.”

 You watched as her smile grew and then she started to laugh, leaning back into her chair. You chuckled along with her but you were acutely aware of the way Flowey shuddered against your neck.

“That is a surprise, indeed. I would have thought the area was sectioned off. So much time passes between guests that I thought it wasn’t easy to get to the mountain.”

You shake your head. “No fences or anything. I guess the locals just avoid the mountain. Or know where to go safely.”

Toriel nodded. “Perhaps.” Then she shook her head releasing a saddened sigh. “But you weren’t aware of anything and you ended up here. I’m happy for the visit but it seems like you really need to be better protected.” She stands now, wrapping her arms around you and pulling you into a hug.

Panic rose in your chest and you had to fight to keep your body relaxed and accept the hug. You felt Flowey shrink against the curve of the back of your neck, trying to avoid touching Toriel’s arms.

“Worry not, child. I will protect you. You will be safe here with me.”


	2. Scrap 1 Ch 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was only 1.2 pages long. Guess I didn't think out enough of the story at the time to continue it. Hm.....

Toriel had insisted you take a shower and get ready for bed. The whole time she happily led you to the bathroom, talking through the door except when she left to gather a new pair of clothes. Once you were dressed in one of her spare purple tunics, she escorted you to an empty bedroom. She tucked you in and patted your head, wished you good night and clicked the lights off.

You had never felt more like a child in your life. It was almost funny.

“All of that was too close!” Flowey whisper-hissed in your ear. He unwound his way from your upper arm and shifted from under your wet hair. “We’ll have to wait a while to make sure we have a chance to run.”

He nodded his head to the nearby closet. “You should check for warm gear, it’s going to be cold past the Ruins.”

“How cold?” You shuffle from under the blankets and quietly walk over to the closet.

“It’s a town called Snowdin, obviously it’s covered in snow.” You nod and pull the doors open. Inside you mostly see children’s clothes, many of which obviously wouldn’t fit you.

On the floor of the closet is a backpack and you grab it, it’s empty but you quickly stuff it with the few shirts your certain would fit. You glance at the child shoes, pondering if you should change any for your hiking boots but dismiss it when they all end up being too small. Instead you opt to grab a few extra pair of socks.

“I wish I had extra underwear now.” You grumble. “Too bad I didn’t plan to fall into a hole with a hidden city.” Flowey was staring at you like you were crazy a moment, then seemed to understand that you were being sarcastic.

You smile at him and look around the dark room. An empty photo frame stood on the bookshelf, there was a box of children’s toys at the foot of the bed and some children’s drawings covered the walls. Closing the closet doors, you turn your attention to the wet strands of hair sticking to your face and neck.

“I need a towel to dry my hair, it’ll be bad if it’s still wet when I head into cold weather.”

Flowey took the chance to look around room then finally nodded his head back to the closet. “Just use one of the shirts that won’t fit.”

“Good idea.” You do just that, using three shirts to dry your hair as much as possible then rehanging them. “It hasn’t been long since she left, but I can’t hear anything. Do you think she’s still awake?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe we could take a peek?”

You hum in nervous disagreement but walk to the door anyway. Your hand hovered over the door knob, both you and Flowey standing in silence. Retracting your hand, you opt instead to lean your ear against the door. The door was thick and sturdy, definitely not like the manufactured doors from the human homes.

“Hear anything?” You ask Flowey, frowning into the darkness.

“No.”

Sighing, you grab the knob and turn it painfully slow. You hear each click in the knob as it turns and try to focus on breathing and listening at the same time. Finally the knob is fully turned and you ease the door open the smallest of cracks.


	3. Scrap 2 Ch 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This story was ended and absorbed into another story

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had posted this chapter online before it got merged into another story. This version of the story got scrapped because I couldn't think of an ending that suited the beginning I typed out.

Pain.

You were in pain, that’s all you could tell.

One minute it felt like you were being stabbed, the next it felt as though something were ripping your body apart. You couldn’t see or hear or smell; you only felt pain.

The nothingness outside of the pain acted as both a comfort and something to raise your fears simultaneously. Soothing in the way a bath at just the right temperature made you feel at ease and untethered to the weight of the world. Frightening because your brain _knew_ there was supposed to be something, anything, outside of yourself, but only received nothingness.

The pains ebbed and flowed like crashing waves over your body, forcing you into sharp jagged rocks all across your skin or digging into your body like acid. You felt the stabs of blades through your lungs, the ripping sensation of the leg muscles, the sickening pop of bones wrenched from sockets and joints.

One particular bout of pain seared across your throat and caused you to choke, that was the first time you realized that you were breathing, and in that moment of deprivation all of the pain stopped.

Now you felt empty.

Lost.

What separated you from the nothing?

Your body had become nothing. No sensation of cold or heat. No texture upon your skin. Neither breeze nor slap of wind on your face; you were nothing.

The darkness shrouded your vision, consuming it whole and leaving not even echoes of shadows and light in your mind’s eye. You forced a slow blink in your desire to feel the lashes brush your cheeks, but you couldn’t feel the smooth sensation of the lids cross your eyes or the lashes on the skin.

You panicked. You tried to will your body to move, to curl upon itself, but you didn’t know if it succeeded or lay paralyzed. You fought to open your mouth and scream, but sound did not emit and you missed the feeling of your throat running raw.

You sobbed in your mind, the one place that still gave the impression of sensation, and imagined yourself curled up and arms wrapped around your chest. You shivered in the false cold and imagined the wet tears leaving a trail along your face. In your mind, your heart gave a painful lunge, though you couldn’t place the direction. It just hurt.

You tried to force that pain again, hungering for any sensation, but it eluded you.

Whimpering, you fell back into your mind, into the imaginings of sensations and gravity.

It was little comfort, but you refused to face the darkness again and again and again for eternity. Would you be here forever? Where was here? Have you always been here?

No, you told yourself. You had been _somewhere_ before this, but where? Why couldn’t you remember anything?

That lunge of pain pulled at your chest again, and rippled through your body. It was so sudden and surprising, but welcomed, that you latched onto it through the shock.

_Please,_ you begged, _please don’t let me go._

The sensation was barely there, just below what your sensation-starved body could consciously register. You whined into the silence and will yourself to hold on tight to that echoing pain flittering through your body.

Just as you felt the pain ebb away and the numbing darkness engulf your limbs, that pain shot you again. Straight through the chest and deeper within, you would have sobbed and gasped for air if it were possible. The ripples of the pain laced up your body and you were aware of two hands clasped tightly in front of your chest.

Were those your hands? Where you holding something?

With a third wave of pain, your mind panicked and cried for it to stop, but just as quickly cried for more.

Pain rippled through your legs and you were aware that you had flailed in the nothingness. Your legs kicked uselessly, arms throwing empty punches, and for a moment it felt as if you were falling.

You wished to scream again, panic at the sensation of gravity had shocked your instincts back to working. You were falling, but where?

The pulling force of gravity had you again, pulling your chest and arms, neck and legs. You _were_ falling, but where and why and how and was it possible to stop?

The direction of the gravity wasn’t stationary, swinging from behind you to in front of you and back again. You were spinning in the sense of gravity but still floating in the nothing at the same time. Your mind couldn’t handle the juxtaposition of sensation and you gagged, feeling nauseous.

Something cold whispered against your skin, so light yet sharp that it was followed by a wave of shocking pain. The gravity pulled harder, and another wave of the cold brushed your face, giving you the horrid idea that you were falling face-first to the ground.

You screamed and cried and flailed your body to catch something, anything, but nothing existed. The panic and the pulling had you gagging again, heaving dry air from your stomach and against the vast emptiness.

The gravity became stronger, painfully so, and the cold started to brush over you at faster speeds. You scream again, and this time there’s the faint sound of your own voice in your ears. You were falling face-first into a place unknown from the vast nothingness that wasn’t possible in any realm you knew.

It was frightening and exciting, the sensation of nothing with slaps of reality all at once.

And all at once, it was too much.

Too much wind, you couldn’t breathe.

Too much gravity, you couldn’t move.

Too much motion, too much cold, too much, _too much,_ _too much!_

Finally it stopped, forcefully and abruptly. The sudden absence of everything again startled you and you cried. The pain was heavier now, dancing across your arms and legs along with the cold, hard sensation of a metal wall. Your head throbbed, throat felt raw, nose bloodied, eyes burning profusely.

Something hit your ears; a sound.

It made you cry harder and wish for the safe nothingness again, but all at the same time you realized that you were _somewhere_ again. As it should be. You were alive and your senses were working again. It was overwhelming, and you had no idea what was going on or where you were but your instincts cheered at the sensations, at the normalcy.

Your nerves, however, were frayed and your poor consciousness couldn’t stand the onslaught of sensory input, before finally taking mercy and forcing you into your own oblivion.

 


	4. Scrap 2 Ch 2

Your body felt…strange. It was familiar and new all at the same time.

It was heavy and clumsy but capable of great ranges of motion and strength. Your sense of touch was in hyper drive, every little texture felt raw to your skin and you would flinch away from anything new at first. The air around you was cold and wet, a strange combination that forced your body to fight for any heat it had and could maintain.

On occasion, you felt a sense of warmth and strength not from yourself. It was accompanied by voices, laughter, yelling, and hugs. Sometimes there was the sensation of safety within that warmth, others it was a sense of unease and fear.

It felt like weeks had passed before you had finally caught a conscious glimpse of what was before you.

A face, round and soft, yet hard and smooth at the same time. Bright blue eyes dancing as they watched you smile and play before them with plush toys and rough cubes.

As quickly as the moment came, it left.

You were back to the feeling of things around you, gathering an idea of what was happening without fully understanding.

The second time, there was another face. This one longer and smiling just as wide with dark eyes that still portrayed warmth and comfort. You were higher from the ground this time, nestled against the blue one’s side, an arm wrapped around your back.

You couldn’t quite hear what the two strangers were saying, but you knew they were in a good mood and having fun. The air was cold against your face but you felt warm, and perhaps a bit stiff. You took a look down at yourself and met the soft sensation of a fluffy scarf to your nose, which caused you to sneeze.

“Bless you, tiny human!”

You jerked at the loud voice above and behind you, turning to look at the larger face towering over you and your carrier.

A red scarf was wrapped around his neck and he didn’t look at all properly dressed for the cold wind that was hitting your face. When he met your eyes, he smiled wider and reached forward with a red-gloved hand to ruffle your hair affectionately.

“OH!,” He shouted, then looked to his companion/your carrier. “We have forgotten their hats!”

Hats? You question. As in plural? More than one? Multiples?

You were aware now that you had at least four layers on currently, not counting the scarf, gloves, and boots. Despite how cold your ears and cheeks were, they were the only thing countering the mild heat building beneath your layers of clothing.

“What if they get sick?” Your carrier cried.

Abruptly you were spun around so your back was against his chest, there was the sound of the zipper being pulled quickly, and then you were shrouded in mild darkness.

“There!” roared behind your head. “They can be safe and warm!”

Ya, no. You squirmed inside his jacket, reaching up to force the zipper down enough to poke your head from the bright blue material.

“Ah! Maybe they don’t like their head to be covered?” The red one asked.

There was a hand on your head, brushing hair out of your face. “Maybe. Should we go home for the hats?”

“I shall go!” The taller..skeleton(?) struck a pose, his scarf waving in a false breeze. Without another word, he spun on the spot and made a run back down the path.

“Alright, Cali, you and I are going to check on some puzzles until Papyrus comes back!”

Who? Did he just call you ‘Cally’?

The shorter…-ya, he was a skeleton-, turned to walk through the woods now, leaving the visible path entirely for a destination unknown.

With each step, the zipper tried to dig into your neck, so you pulled the edge of your scarf up to cover it and leaned forward to take a better look around.

You were in the woods. Where? You didn’t know. You were being carried by a short skeleton in a bright blue jacket, matching gloves, and a short scarf. It was cold, snowing, and the air felt…stagnant?

If you focused on your carrier, you could remember his names; things others had called him when you weren’t in a state of awareness. Sans, Blue, Blueberry, Short stack, Runt. Bro.

Bro…he had a brother, someone in orange. Who was he? Who was the red one that ran off?

You felt your awareness slip, a small squeal escaped your lips and you felt of rush of pure, random happiness. Then you were in focus again and you didn’t know why you had felt happy so suddenly; you just…were.

“Are you having fun, Cali?” Sans asked. He laughed at your excited squeal and jostled you so you were more comfortable against his chest.

The awareness slipped again, noises left your mouth, tumbling without meaning and muffled partly into your scarf. Sans was laughing and talking back, but you slipped further and further away from your awareness, back to sensations and feelings.

Time went on like that for a while, with shorter peaks of awareness. These moments so fleeting that you barely had the time to register where you were before you were ‘gone’ again.

A living room, a dark bedroom, an office, the woods, the snow, a booth table, a cold lab.

You felt it, of course, before you became aware of it, but you had a cold. Your nose was stuffy and you recall waking up most of the night to cough and cry. Someone was worrying over you, their broad white chest obscuring your vision as they wrapped a fresh warm blanket around your frame.

“There, Calibri. This warm blanket should help soothe your human aches.” He-Papyrus- said as he scooped you back into his arms to cradle you against his chest.

The blanket did feel nice, giving the scent of freshly dried laundry. You snuggled into it and into Papyrus’ shoulder, closing your eyes as a wave of exhaustion hit you. You felt horrible and wanted to go to sleep right there in the comfort of the towel and gentle hands, but you were ‘aware’ again for the first time in a long while and wanted to know where you were. So you force your head up and look around the dark room.

It was probably the early morning hours or late night, but the living room was dark. With what little shadows and lights you could see, there appeared to be two couches and two single chairs in the center, two windows on one wall, a long stand along the far wall and a large television. It was clean and simple from the looks of it but your wandering gaze was cut short when Papyrus started to ascend some stairs and his scarf blocked your vision.

His hands were large in comparison to your tiny body, and they were gently rubbing circles on your back through the blanket. You sighed at the comfort and felt your head lull as the exhaustion came back at full force. Only when he reached the top of the stairs did you force your head back up to look around again.

It was a long, dark hallway with several doors on each side, one smaller window at the far end and signs hanging on each door. You couldn’t read any of them in the low light, but Papyrus turned to enter the second room on the left and the hallway was gone.

Papyrus started humming now, something you didn’t recognize but your tired brain didn’t really care as it started to really lull you to sleep. A twinge of pain echoed through your head and made you groan, to which your caretaker started gently rubbing the back of your head.

You decided sleep was a really good idea right now.

The next time you became ‘aware’ you were sitting on a desktop in a small lab office probably a day after your last moment of clarity. Something orange was standing in front of you, keeping a steady hand nearby at all times and smelling of cigarettes and honey.

What a horrible combination.

“O-okay so th-this should help them g-get better soon.”

Looking to your right, you found a tall, blue woman with red hair and..and..

Okay so you have fish people and skeletons? Why does this all feel so unusual yet natural at the same time?

“C-can you distract them?”

“sure.” Drawled the orange hoodie in front of you. The steady hand shifted and reached into the pocket in front of the hoodie. “hey kiddo.” You looked up and up until you saw the tall skeleton’s face. “Unny’s gonna give you a shot, but after that I’ll give you a sucker.” He pulled a purple sucker from his hoodie pocket, waving it in front of you to gain your attention, then pulling it to your left so you couldn’t watch the other woman come closer.

However, you were aware again, and would not be distracted by candy in a new place. You turned to the right and faced the fish lady again. She was closer now, holding a syringe with some oddly green glowing material inside. You gave her a curious look, then the needle, then back up to the skeleton before you, who was trying to grab your attention again.

“hey kid, it’ll be okay.” He lightly tapped your tiny nose with the sucker and again tried to distract you.

Not in the mood to play games, you faced the fish woman and held out your right arm; palm down, elbow out, to give her access to your bicep. She looked surprised by your action and blinked up at the skeleton in front of you. You kept your arm out with a determined face and watched as she came closer and gently cupped your arm.

Apprehension started to build in your gut, you knew there would be a sting, but with your hyper sensitive nerves, would it hurt more than you thought? Just as the needle started to come closer to your arm, you leaned forward and rested your head into the skeleton’s hoodie. He shifted closer for you and carefully hugged you, cooing encouragement.

The shot itself was applied quickly and the sting was only a little worse than what your cloudy memories had provided, but the way the doctor had stepped back and let the skeleton rub the arm, it seems that they were expecting you to cry. Instead you leaned back and looked up to the skeleton, who was smiling at you though looking a bit confused.

“G-give them another day. I-if they’re n-not better by dinner tom-morrow, then bring them back.”

“ya.” He-Papyrus- said without looking away from you. You were studying him and it looked like he was studying you in return. He made no move to offer you the sucker he had distracted you with, opting instead to see what you would do next.

So you made the next move by greeting him.

“Hi.”

He frowned and leaned back a moment, which was not what you wanted.

“Heh-wo.” Your lips and tongue felt too big and clumsy, causing you to butcher your ‘hello’. You frowned at yourself and gently traced your lips with two fingers.

“are..are you trying to talk, kid?”

You met his eyes sternly and gave a firm nod at him.

Papyrus took a deep breath and looked over to the fish doctor, who you looked to as well, and saw that she was just as surprised as Papyrus was right now.

“what was in that shot?” he asked.

“J-just some herbs a-and healing m-magic!”

You had so many questions to ask them, but they looked so confused too. How long did you have this time? What should you ask first? Should you answer something for them first?

Where am I? You tried to ask, but it came out as a babble when you tried to talk too fast. Though they turned their attention back to you, they didn’t give you an answer. They probably didn’t understand what you said.

“Where.” You started slow.

“em. I.”

“F-full s-sentences?”

“kid? You-we-what’s going on, Undyne?”

“I-I d-don’t kn-know!”

You pulled on Papyrus’ hoodie, demanding his attention. “wake.” You pointed to yourself. “I. wake. Aware.”

“’aware’? w-what are you talking about kid?”

You opened your mouth, ready to speak, but felt yourself slip away. Gentle skeleton hands cupped your face and forced you to look in his eyes.

“kid?”

For a moment you came back. “g.go..ing.” You faded and the pain in your arm seemed to be your main focus for a moment. You blinked and looked in the direction of Papyrus’ eyes. “N-not. Wake.”

“you’re not awake? c’mon kid. what are you talking about? what’s going on?”

Looking at him, you wanted to ask, to talk, to answer, but you slipped away and only remembered crying and sitting at the office for a while longer that day until Papyrus finally took you home.

You remember spending a lot of time with the orange Papyrus close by, watching you and asking seemingly random questions. These questions never stayed with you long enough to even babble an answer, but at least you remembered that he was keeping an eye on you.

Your next moment of clarity was at night, sleeping in a rocket-ship-shaped bed next to the same Sans you remember walking through the forest with. His sleeping form blocked you from the edge of the bed, keeping you safe between him and the wall but also made it difficult to slip past him. You opted instead to crawl the distance to the end of the bed rather than try to maneuver around Sans, but the mattress and box spring was a bit higher from the ground that you had anticipated.

Laying on your stomach, you slowly let yourself fall, trying to land on your feet but your tiny body wasn’t able to catch itself so you fell to your butt with a grunt. Sans stirred on the bed and in a moment of panic, you quickly got to your feet and headed for the door.

Damn.

Of course the doorknob was too high for you to reach.

A whine slipped passed your lips before you realized it but you were intent on finding a way back to the orange Papyrus. A look around the room yielded a desk chair and a box to work with. Making your way to the box, you saw that it was full of bones.

Bones? Okay, sure whatever. You left the bones and reached for the chair. It was heavier than you could manage, despite the fact that it stood on wheels, so you climbed into it to try pushing it from the desk instead. On the desk lay some scattered papers, pens, pencils, and measuring tools. The paper was graphing paper and some of the pens were blue and red, but you couldn’t make out what the work was. It had information, like a map or plan of some type, but you couldn’t read anything.

Confused, you pulled one of the pages closer and tried to focus the words. You had the idea that you were supposed to be able to read the words, but nothing on the paper made sense to you.


	5. Error Ch 12 first try

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As with all writing, it's a lot of trial, error, and pruning. 
> 
> This was my first attempt at 'Error's Chapter 12. Ultimately I liked the other one better.

The food had become inedible with pieces of wood from the cabinet door and the salad wasn’t enough to feed everyone. Alexandria said that she could probably save the roast, but no one wanted to tempt fate and swallow a splinter. So everything was either thrown away or tossed into a garbage bag for Morgan to take home for compost. When presented with the bag,   
Morgan had asked what happened to the food as she slowly took it. 

“I’m still not quite sure.” You shrug a shoulder. “Something hit one of my cabinet doors and scattered wood chips and dust everywhere. The salad was the only thing still edible but we ran out of vinegar for the dressing. I’m going to order pizza once we get things cleaned up.”

“Oh.” Your friend looked to the bag then back to you, clearly lost. You gave her an exaggerated shrug, raising your shoulders as high as they could go before turning around and leaving her there. She gave a confused mumble behind you before the clamor of dishes in the sink drowned her out. 

A chant of “Scrub! Scrub! Scrub!” was coming from the Baby Blue as he oversaw the cleaning competition between Alexandria and Pappy. Poppy stood off to the side waving a torn paper napkin folded into a triangle flag and cheering everyone on. 

Two seconds later, Spades teleported back into the scarf still around you neck and leaned heavily against your sternum. You cupped him and adjusted the material to better hold him. “You okay?”

“He’s tired.” Nina stood from the table, dispersing the last of her healing magic from her palms. “Bitties are made of emotions and magic so when they experience extreme emotional situations, they can get tired. He’ll be fine once he gets a good night’s rest.”

One last pat and you have Spades’ tucked safely away in the scarf. 

“What do you think caused him to freak out?” 

Nina gives you a studying look. “He was worried about your eye.” 

You spare a glance to the slumbering bitty. “I… can understand that, but why would he have freaked out so badly? I kept telling him that I was fine.”

The rabbit monster’s look became unreadable as her gaze slipped passed you, mentally analyzing something. When she didn’t answer after another moment, you turned to give her some space to think. 

It looked like Alexandria had won the dish cleaning contest, which left Pappy with drying duty. Of course Baby Blue wouldn’t leave his friend all alone, so he made to pull a second towel from the drawer before he stumbled and fell into it instead. Alexandria laughed and scooped him, and a towel, up onto the counter.

“The patio is all set up and ready.” Morgan joined the group in the kitchen. “I set up the awning too.”

“Thank you. I was considering the same thing.” You say. “Have we figured out what to order for pizzas?” 

“Something good!” Alexandria shouts. 

You give her the most flat look you could manage. “Thank you for your valuable input.” You quip.

She smiles wide and lifts her chin high. “You’re welcome. I’m a gift to this world.” She laughs and returns to the two bitties. You and Morgan laugh with her, then make your way to the living room with Nina to order food. 

 

You have always considered pizza a ‘special food’. That is, something eaten rarely, usually with friends and accompanied by an activity. You had grown up with this mindset as something your parents had always emphasized and never saw a reason to drop it. Luckily your friends had the same view for the most part and Morgan offered up a movie night in lieu of the bar. While the idea caused a frenzy among the more excitable souls, once everyone moved outside to eat, the bitties from the Center fell into silence.

You and Morgan give each other confused looks. Even Spades lifts his head from the scarf to eye the others, albeit sluggishly.

“Are you guys okay?” Alexandria asks. 

Nina giggles and places G on the glass table. “We don’t get to go outside at the Center.”

Three gasps in unison and everyone refocuses on the bitties as they move to the edge of the patio to brush the tallest grass. Even Poppy and G looked mesmerized by the green foliage. 

The looks of awe and wonder. The way Blue and Pappy tugged at thin branches.

Spades never did that…

You look to your Bitty now sleeping half way out of the scarf and recall the first time you took him out of the house. It had been just yesterday, right? When you went shopping. It was raining a bit and he was in your pocket the first half of the day but he was sitting up in one of the bags on the way home. He had seen the grass then, right? He didn’t seem too excited about it. 

You hum and recall how he was looking outside the patio door before you had left, looking all excited about something and trying to point it out to you.

You give Spades’ head a gentle tap. “Hey munchkin, did you want to play in the grass too?”

He didn’t even bother to lift his head to look at you, just rolling it to the side to watch you out of the corner of his socket. His answering grunt echoed through your sternum and you figured that would count as a pretty solid ‘no’. 

A gentle shift in the air around you alerts you to Morgan looking over your shoulder at Spades. When you looked to her, she gave you one quick glance to make sure you were okay with her hovering then looked back to Spades.

“Is he going to fall out?” You look again and, ya, it looked like he was about to fall.

“Spades, why don’t you-!” And there he goes, toppling head first from the scarf. 

You and Morgan both screech, hands full and unable to grab at him as he plummeted. A bizarre sense of conflict had you debating on throwing the pizza in favor of your bitty, but you couldn’t solve the problem before he suddenly disappeared.

“Where-!?” You flailed the warm boxes in your arms. 

Morgan yelped behind you and accidently whacked you in the back of the head with a stack of ceramic plates. It didn’t hurt, not much anyway, but you knew it was an action that could cause pain and you voiced the standard ‘ow’ without thinking before turning to her.

She was holding one stack of plates as far from herself, and as close to you, as she could because Spades had teleported on top of them. You had turned just in time to see him stumble to his hands and knees before locking eyes. One blink and you look to see that Morgan looks absolutely freaked out by the situation, letting out a distressed whine when she locks eyes on you. 

“Ah, hold on.” You turn and practically toss the pizzas onto the table, startling G more. You return, scoop Spades from the plates, and plop him onto the table where you can check him over. 

“You like to scare the life out of me, don’t you.” You half tease him as he tries to bat away your prying fingers. There’s the clank of plates beside you as Morgan steps up to peer around your body.

“Is he okay?” 

Spades frowns at Morgan beneath your fingers and sticks his tongue out in a rude manner. 

“Hey, don’t be rude.” You scold gently. “She was worried about you too.” The little bitty huffs and crosses his arms but he looks fine so you relay his condition to Morgan before taking a stack of plates. 

“Is the chaos over?”

You, Morgan, and Spades look up to see Alexandria frozen in time; stuck between moving to help with whatever had just happened and pausing to watch events unfold. She looks completely lost.

Morgan laughs and you give everyone the thumbs up after noticing the audience. Half the group smiles while the other half look over to Spades while still clueless about the moment of panic that had occurred. When Morgan sheepishly explains what happened, Baby Blue was quick to hop up and explain.

“He teleports on instinct!”

“On instinct?” Alexandria places the salad and bowls onto the table and pulls out a chair. 

“In times of duress, a Monster’s magic can lash out to help protect them.” Nina sits down and helps Poppy onto the table top. “Monsters that can use teleportation often do so without thinking about it when they are in danger.”

“Or when they’re scared.” Poppy adds. 

Spades looks like he’s about to fall asleep sitting up so you quickly slice a smaller piece of pizza for him to eat before he passes out. He takes it readily enough, munching on a corner while you bite into your own slice. “Can any of you teleport?” You ask.

Pappy, Blue and G shake their heads ‘no’ while Poppy gives a shoulder shrug. Nina giggles at the question and answers in the negative as well.

Alexandria swallows a forkful of the salad, now sprinkled with raisins, and points to Poppy. “What was the shrug for? Can you, like, kinda teleport?”

You notice that, for once, Spades looks more exhausted than Poppy ever has. Including the time Spades wore him out while playing with the ball in the living room. 

“Teleportation takes a lot of magic.” You twitch at Nina’s voice directed at you and look up. “Poppy is a Bitty that is naturally low in magic reserves, but when he has enough excess, mixed with a strong enough external motivation, he can teleport short distances.”

“External motivation?” Your friend echoes.

Morgan hums and repeats what Nina and Poppy just said, “’In times of duress’ and ‘when they’re scared’.”

“Oh…”

Nina just nods her head at Morgan, who blushes and looks to the table. Baby Blue reaches for a napkin under your snail-shaped paperweight and cleans himself off before jumping over to you.

“Human!” He pauses to look at Spades nodding off by your plate. “Um.. Oh! Are we really having a movie night?” 

You smile and nod. 

Literal stars spark from his eye sockets, startling Morgan and causing Alexandria to squeal happily. The little blue Bitty smiles wider and starts wiggling on the spot. “How many can we watch? Can we stay up all night? Oh! Will it be like a slumber party?!”

“A slumber party, eh?” You tease. “I don’t know if I have enough popcorn for that.”

“Then we can make some cakes!” Alexandria shouts.

Well, damn. “I uh-“

“And we could play some Kings Court.” Morgan adds.

Alexandria gasps loudly around her bit of pizza. “Oh my gosh, I haven’t played that in forever!”

“Me either.”

“Guys-“ You start.

“What’s a ‘kings court’?” Nina asks. G and Poppy look to Morgan for an answer as well.

It was Alexandria that answers. “Oh my gosh! It’s like this super fun version of ‘Truth or Dare’ except you don’t know who you’re daring to do what. It can get pretty crazy and funny real quick.   
One time, I challenged this dork,” she elbows you in the shoulder, “to call a friend and run screaming through the house.” 

Everyone starts laughing while you retaliate by trying to tickle Alexandria with one hand. 

“It’s completely unpredictable when you do it right, too. One time I was the ‘King’ and I dared the people holding the 1,3,and 5 cards to switch clothes, totally thinking that they were all guys. Ended up with our friend Jason wearing Alexandria’s bra the rest of the night.”

Alexandria throws a wadded up napkin at Morgan. “Silence you!”

You let out a snort and nearly spat out your bite of food. Spades jerked out of his sleepy trance at the loud laughter to whip his head around at everyone in confusion. 

“Okay,” Poppy sighed. “I have got to see this game.”

“Yes!” Blue cheers. Spades huffs at the excited bitty beside him and rolls to his feet to take a tomato slice from your salad bowl. 

Before he can take his first bite, you tuck a napkin under his chin to save him from a second shower in one day. He grumbles at the action, but leaves it any ant proceeds to take a bite of the fruit and prove your point when the napkin catches the dribble. 

Baby Blue has returned to sit beside Pappy, the two debating over which movies to watch which brings you back to your first thought when everyone mentioned a slumber party.

“So…” you drawl and look at your friends. The air around the table stills at your voice, all eyes on you. 

Maybe you sounded weird?

Still, you clear your throat and continue on, “A slumber party?” You confirm. Both humans glance at each other then nod at you. “Don’t you two work tomorrow?”

The silence becomes an awkward pause before Morgan deadpans.

“Nope.”

Alexandria gasps dramatically. “You lucky little, son-of-a-“ though you’ve heard her cussing before, the language is quickly formed into barely distinguishable mumbles and groans as she censors herself in front of Nina. The caretaker monster watches her mumbling censorship with narrowed eyes and a barely concealed frown.


End file.
